Attacks on Zaman test EU-Turkey ties

Last week, suspected supporters of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), an armed group listed as a terrorist organization by the
European Union and the United States, took their confrontation with the Turkish
state to Western Europe, attacking the French and German offices of one of
Turkey's most influential newspapers, Zaman.

In broad daylight on February 15, around 15
people, some of them masked, stormed Zaman
France's offices in Pantin, northeast of Paris, threatened employees, broke
windows, and damaged furniture and computers, the newspaper reported.

That evening, a suspected pro-PKK group
threw Molotov cocktails on the paper's premises in the German city of Cologne.

According to Zaman's editors, the attack in France has been claimed by a group allegedly
close to the PKK, the "Euphrates Revolutionary Revenge Brigade." This is the
third time that the paper's offices have been targeted in France, and similar
attacks have taken place in Vienna and Zürich.

The EU is particularly anxious to show its
determination to stop such attacks. Turkey, an emerging power in the Middle
East and a crucial economic and political partner for the EU, has an axe to
grind with Brussels. In particular, it deeply resents the opposition of some
key member states like France and Germany to its full integration into the EU.

Any hint that EU countries would be soft on
the groups that vandalized Zaman's
offices would be seen by Ankara as evidence of double standards. In recent
months, the EU has strongly criticized Turkey's measures against the press, in
particular the prosecution and jailing of dozens of journalists, mostly charged
under controversial anti-terrorism legislation.

Jean-Philippe Mauer's reaction is a sign
that French authorities understand what is at stake. The deputy chairman of
France's ruling party, Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), called on the
Interior Ministry to take all necessary measures to protect the newspaper's
offices, Zamanreported.
The attacks follow complaints from Zaman
officials that the French police had failed to provide security as requested
for its personnel in France.

The French authorities have started an
investigation while the German police have reportedly arrested two suspects.

The acts of vandalism took place on the
anniversary of the arrest of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in February 1999 in
Nairobi. According to some analysts, PKK sympathizers argue that Zaman is pro-government and, in a crude
amalgam, therefore shares the blame for what they see as failed Turkish
policies in its Southeastern provinces, a region mainly inhabited by Kurds.

Zaman ("The Time" in Turkish) is connected to Fethullah Gülen, a powerful
religious brotherhood close to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his
Justice and Development (AKP) party. It also publishes an English edition, Today's Zaman.

The attacks have been strongly condemned by
most European institutions and political groups. Underlining that "freedom of
the press and freedom of expression are the core values of European culture,"
the European Parliament's Rapporteur on Turkey, Dutch Christian Democratic MEP Ria
Oomen-Ruijten, called on France and Germany "to conduct in-depth investigations
in order to bring the perpetrators to justice."

"Terrorism is about intimidating people.
The PKK wanted to intimidate the journalists working for Zaman," said Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, vice chair of the Group of
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament, according
to the newspaper.
"We want media representatives and journalists to be able to work in freedom,
free from intimidation and fear."

Dunja Mijatovic, representative on freedom
of the media for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE), also reacted, saying, "These
attacks not only create fear in those directly affected. They also damage media
freedom by attempting to silence journalists for their reporting."

CPJ EU Correspondent Jean-Paul Marthoz is a Belgian journalist and longtime press freedom and human rights activist. He teaches international journalism at the Université catholique de Louvain and is a columnist for the Belgian daily Le Soir.

Comments

where was the freedom of the press and freedom of expression are the core values of European culture. when danish government closed Kurdish TV? in return for Turkey's vote for Anders Fogh Rasmussen to become a Secretary General of NATO.

Marthoz, you think that Gulen suppressing Freedom of Speech and jailing journalists in Turkey is acceptable? Labeling the PKK as "terrorists" or journalists as "terrorists" is BS.
What about the Gulen Movement's part in all of this and the killing of Kurds? Don't they have rights?
You obviously know nothing about the dangers of the Gulen Movement.
http://www.gulenschoolsworldwide.blogspot.com